Signs of a Regenerate Man
Regeneration (Saved, Sanctified, Christian) is obtained only through Jesus Christ by the grace of God
“A regenerate man is one who comprises within himself all the particulars which are herein enumerated:”
1. He has received from God “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation through the knowledge of Him, the eyes of his understanding being illuminated” or opened. (Ephesians 1:18.)
2. He has a new spirit, “concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and he is renewed in the spirit of his mind, and has put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)
“He is crucified with Christ; nevertheless he lives, yet not he; but Christ lives in him; and the life which he now lives in the flesh, he lives by the faith of the Son of God.” (Galatians 2:20.)
3. He refuses to be complicit in sin, “with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, is changed into the same image from glory to glory, even us by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) He is “dead to sin; his old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth he should not serve sin; he is freed from sin, and is alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord?” (Romans 6:2,6, 7,11)
“He has crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts, and now lives in the Spirit.” (Galatians 2: 24,25)
“By our Lord Jesus Christ, the world is crucified unto him, and he unto the world.” (6:14) “In Christ Jesus the Lord, he is also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” (Colossians 2:11.)
4. He spends his time primarily doing the things of the Spirit, “In him, God works both to will and to do.” (Philippians 2:13.)
“He has put off the old man with his deeds, and has put on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge, which agrees with the image of him who created him.” (Colossians 3:9,10.)
“He is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; the Spirit of Christ dwells in him; through the Spirit, he mortifies the deeds of the body; he is led by the Spirit of God, and does not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:4,9,13,14)
A regenerate man is he who has a mind freed from the darkness and vanity of the world, and illuminated with the true and saving knowledge of Christ, and with faith, who has affections that are mortified, and delivered from the dominion and slavery of sin, that are inflamed with such new desires as agree with the divine nature, and as are prepared and fitted for newness of living, who has a will reduced to order, and conformed to the will of God, who has powers and faculties able, through the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to contend against sin, the world and Satan, and to gain the victory over them, and to bring forth fruit unto God, such as is meet for repentance — who also actually fights against sin, and, having obtained the victory over it, no longer does those things which are pleasing to the flesh and to unlawful desires, but does those which are grateful to God; that is, he actually desists from evil and does good — not indeed perfectly, but according to the measure of faith and of the gift of Christ, according to the small degree of regeneration, which, begun in the present life, must be gradually improved or increased, till at length it is perfected after this short life is ended — not with respect to essential parts, but with respect to quantity, as we have already declared — not always without interruption, (for he sometimes stumbles, falls, wanders astray, commits sin, grieves the Holy Spirit, ac.,) but generally, and for the most part, he does good.
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